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Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Traveling During Typhoon Season

Mike checking out the city view from the balcony.

We are in Hong Kong! If you've never been here before, it's a great place to visit, and you can get around the whole city just speaking English - seriously, everyone speaks English, and all street signs are in English. It's an international metropolitan city like London or New York, and spectacular for shopping, especially clothes shopping. We are super lucky because my grandma has a nice flat with plenty of room for guests. It also has an amazing view.

the Hong Kong city skyline early in the morning.

the Hong Kong city skyline at night.

typical street with taxis lined up

Hong Kong can be crazy crowded, loud, and overwhelming with sights, sounds, and smells. I like the change; it makes me appreciate our quiet life back home. At the same time, I get to enjoy all the things I've missed here - the ease of public transportation, the respect people have for the elderly, bakeries on every corner, super fresh seafood, tropical fruits, amazingly intricate dim sum, and my absolute favorite - high tea.

We happened to come back at the peak of typhoon season, so we spend a lot of time indoors (mostly eating), hiding from the wind and rain. Today we were at a Level 8 warning (10 is the highest)!

A shot of the crazy wind and rain.

A typical subway scene, but much LESS crowded since
schools and banks were closed due to the typhoon.

Since you can't eat all the time, we spent a whole afternoon in the Hong Kong History Museum, browsing the exhibits. They've rebuilt a traditional Chinese house, old streets of Hong Kong, and an old port. Walking through life size replicas is pretty fun and immersive.

When there's no typhoon warning, we rush down to enjoy the pool. Although we always had a swimming pool at our loft in Los Angeles, it was brrrr! cold. This one is like bath water, and you can walk right in.

Like a palm oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle!

Later this week, we are off to Macau for our first time. You have to take a ferry to get there, and during the typhoon, the ferries are cancelled. We pushed our reservation to Thursday in the hopes that the storm will have passed by then. Wish us luck!